“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1)

This Davidic psalm begins with the question that Jesus cried out at the end. David surely wrote this psalm with his own feeling, yet I wonder how much awareness he had that he was describing the Messiah’s death. Did the Spirit awaken him at night to feel the agony of crucifixion: “I am poured out like water, all my bones are out of joint, they have pierced my hands and feet and cast lots for my clothing?” Written centuries before the Romans invented the cruel practice, the Spirit revealed crucifixion to David. Psalm 22 is filled with prophetic details that are only fulfilled in the Son of David, Jesus the Christ.